Roskilde Festival is festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the five biggest annual music festivals in Europe (the other four being the Sziget Festival, the Glastonbury Festival, the Paléo Festival and Rock Werchter). It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer.[1] In 1972, the festival was taken over by the Roskilde Foundation, which has since run the festival as a non-profit organization for development and support of music, culture and humanism.

It is Denmark's first real music-oriented festival, originally for hippies but today it covers more of the mainstream youth from Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. Roskilde Festival 2007 had more than 180 performing bands and gathered around 80,000 people paying for the concerts, with more than 21,000 volunteers, 5,000 media people and 3,000 artists – which means almost 110,000 people participated in the festival.

For many years it was a tradition that the campsite opened the last Sunday of June, but in 2010 the festival opened Saturday instead. The festival management argued that this would prevent earlier years problems with the fence going down before time. The early opening of the campsite, gives the festival guests plenty of time to settle down and "warm up". The festival officially starts the following Thursday at the Animal Showgrounds (in recent years simply known as the "Festival Site") and lasts for 4 days.

Until the mid-1990s the festival attracted mostly Scandinavians, but in recent years it has become more and more international (with an especially large influx of Germans, Australians and British). A Scandinavian alternative remained in the Midtfyns Festival, until that closed in 2004 following declining ticket sales.

The bands presented at Roskilde Festival are traditionally a balanced mix of large well known artists in the absolute live elite, cutting-edge artists from all contemporary genres, popular crowd-pleasing acts plus local Scandinavian headliners and up-and-coming names. The special Roskilde feeling is in particular ensured by stages located inside large tents, catering to an enthusiastic music-loving audience. As opposed to most other European festivals all bands play "real" concerts lasting for at least an hour.

The stages were until 2003 named after their colour, but as the names had not matched the actual colour of the tents for a period, it was decided to rename all stages except the Orange Stage, the central and main stage. The Orange Stage is open in front of a huge field, whereas the other tents cover the whole audience, the largest of which is the Arena stage (formerly known as Green Stage), the largest tent in Europe with an official capacity of 17,000 people. The 2007 edition saw two new tents, replacing Ballroom (1997–2006) which presented mainly World music, and Metropol (2003–2006) which presented mainly Electronica. In 2010 two stages, Astoria (from 2007) and Lounge, did not return, due to a slight shift in focus towards fewer, but bigger bands.

The music covers such styles as rock, Hip Hop, Metal, urban, electronica and 3rd world contemporary music. It has become a tradition to let an up-and-coming Scandinavian band open the Orange Stage on the first day of the festival. There are often surprising performances by classical acts, film-music, opera etc.

Apart from music there is always some theatre and 'lone acts' wandering around the festival site. Terrain and tents are always decorated in various ways.

Great news, Roskilde Festival will stream live together with Red Bull, quotations from the Festival page below!

"Together with Red Bull TV, Roskilde Festival will livestream concerts from #RF16 around the globe. Along with five other iconic festivals, including Primavera Sound, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, Roskilde Festival will be part of Red Bull TV’s festival coverage during the summer."

JOIN ROSKILDE RIDESHARE WITH ANTS
Roskilde Festival has partnered with the Scandinavian based ridesharing service Ants, to make sharing a ride to Roskilde easy, green and with special benefits for those using the service.
If you are planning to drive to Roskilde Festival 2013, we encourage you to fill up your car. It's both more green, you'll maybe get to meet new people, and if you are using the Ants ridesharing service you'll gain even more benefits.

Special parking for all Roskilde Rideshare cars
All cars participating in Roskilde Rideshare with Ants are eligible for a reserved, free and centrally placed parking spot, if at least 4 people are sharing the ride. Other than save money on the normal parking fee, it'll make the walk with all your stuff from the car to the camping grounds shorter and easier.

Sign up using Ants and we will keep you informed on how to get to the parking, and what to do when you are there.

Unique opportunity to cars from Germany, Sweden or Norway: Get a free Full Festival Ticket
Roskilde Festival has donated a total of 100 free Full Festival Tickets to citizens in Germany, Norway and Sweden, who uses Ants to share their ride with other guests heading to Roskilde Festival.

Both driver and passengers must have a profile on Ants. When the ride has more than three passengers, Ants will contact the driver in order for him to confirm that everyone in the car has a valid ticket. If everyone has a valid ticket, the driver can claim his free full festival ticket on the day of arrival to the festival. Important: sign-up for this unique opportunity ends 16 June, and are only for the first 100 cars from Germany, Sweden or Norway that sign up!

THE BEST APP-IDEAS HAVE BEEN SELECTED
Now it’s time to turn the ideas into festival-apps.
The winners of the Roskilde LABS idea contest have been found. Almost 70 ideas were submitted and three great ideas selected:

Fix my Festival by Martin Buch: an app that lets you tip festival officials about a problem that needs fixing. You take a picture and/or describe the problem and tag it with the GPS-location.

Music for Money by Mads Møller: a fundraiser app that allows concert-goers to raise money for charity by collecting donations from pledges for going to concerts.

Roskilde mAPP by Rasmus Fly Filbert: an app that combines the social life of the festival with the tracking of data for the festival to use to improve the festival experience.

Now it’s time to get coding

The app contest has already started and dedicated festival-goers are coding away to make the best possible festival app. For more info on the app contest go to the Roskilde LABS website. Deadline for submitting your app is 1 June 2013.http://labs.roskilde-festival.dk/competition/

Thanks to today’s confirmed acts, we’re not only giving you a proper electronic party on Orange Stage, designed to burn more calories than any normal workout; we’ve also filled the last few empty slots on our Apollo stage.
“We can hardly wait for another sweaty rave-performance from a band who also packed the Cosmopol stage in 2011,” says booker Anders Wahrén.

CHASE & STATUS (UK) show us how electronic music can take the energy and high adrenalin levels from punk and metal, and turn it into parties that boil with equal amounts of intensity. In 2013, they’ll be taking on Orange Stage with new music and an even bigger show combining the best parts of drum’n’bass, dubstep, pop and rock in a magnificent collision.

KENTON SLASH DEMON (DK) is the night-clubbing side-project from Jonas Kenton and Silas Moldenhawer from When Saints Go Machine. ”Kenton Slash Demon has already proven their worth, so in all fairness we could have booked them sooner than we have. But sometimes you just fall in love with what’s been standing in front of you for a long time,” says booker Claes Roepstorff, responsible for the electronic acts at Roskilde Festival.

OM UNIT (UK) draws his inspiration from sounds such as dubstep, instrumental hiphop and jungle. Especially the latter, well-known sound of 90’s electronic music was what got producer and dj John Coles going when he was just a teenager and first threw his love on electronic music. Today, his mix of various styles is right up there with those that define the future of London bass music.

THE STAGE DESIGN OF APOLLO WILL BE OTHERWORLDLY AND UNIQUE
Roskilde Festival’s new electronic stage has found its shape. With its futuristic, cocoon-like appearance Apollo is unlike anything, Roskilde (or any other festival) has featured before.

Apollo, Roskilde Festival’s new electronic stage, is ready.

“It is wonderful to have found the right, cutting-edge design to interact with the different kinds of electronic music, you will meet at the Apollo Stage”, says head of music Rikke Øxner.

Apollo is inflatable, the colour orange and with an otherworldly, cocoon-like appearance, so that people might mistake it for some kind of UFO or mirage at the first encounter. Visuals and specially designed helium balloons will be an integrated part of the experience as soon as the music commences.

Drawn in Berlin, sown in Barcelona
Apollo’s design has been tendered at six studios as well as the usual suppliers of light and sound. The internationally acclaimed, Berlin-based studio p was chosen.In close interaction with Roskilde Festival they thought out the unique construction. Área Cúbica situated on the outskirts of Barcelona has sown the stage which we will receive in Roskilde shortly.

The light design is by Michael Rahr, a true Roskilde veteran who has worked with design and production for many years. Roskilde Festival contacted him at one of his bases in Las Vegas, he immediately agreed to work with Apollo as well. The result is a powerful lighting which no doubt will be an attraction, especially after sunset.

Experienced Expertise Regarding Sound
The Apollo sound system is the most recent Martin MLA system, which Roskilde Festival already tested at the Orange Stage in 2010. It is delivered to Roskilde Festival by ETP, who has more than 15 years of experience with the delay system at the Orange Stage.

A serious advantage with the MLA system is how it manages to distribute the sound very accurately. This way people outside the camping area and outside the festival in general won’t be bothered. We are looking forward to the take-off for Apollo.

“With Apollo we are once again ahead of the pack taking our position seriously as the leading and most versatile music festival in Northern Europe. Also within the field of electronic music, a genre which is shooting in a lot of different directions right now,” says head of music Rikke Øxner.

During our warm-up days from 1 to 4 July we present Nordic, electronic artists at the stage – during this period we have named the stage Apollo Countdown.

THE BAND SCHEDULE IS READY FOR ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
At the same time Roskilde Festival announces Kraftklub, Lone, Christina Rosenvinge and The Sway Machinery.

It is with great pleasure that Roskilde Festival announces the band schedule for this year's festival.

At the same time the festival announces who fills out the last vacant slots in the lineup:

KRAFTKLUB (DE) have charmed the rock-loving audience in Germany with their rebellious party music. The band sounds a bit like Franz Ferdinand or The Clash with weißbier in the blood and thinly disguised chart ambitions.

LONE (UK) have on a dense stream of albums developed their own imaginative mix of rave, hip hop, funk, techno and star-glittering synthesizers. It’s evident on the critically acclaimed 2012 release Galaxy Gardens on which the many flavours, colours and shades are perfectly balanced atop the looped rhythms.

CHRISTINA ROSENVINGE feat. CHRIS BROKAW & REFREE (E/US) has taken the step from teenage pop idol to respected alternative artist in Spain. Her distinctive vocals are reminiscent of both Stina Nordenstam and Cat Power. In this unique, first concert in Denmark, she is accompanied by sadcore legend Chris Brokaw of Codeine and the Catalan troubadour Refree.

THE SWAY MACHINERY (US) plants Jewish cantor singing in a gaudy flowerbed of African, East European and Middle Eastern sounds. At the same time, the interplay and the brass band guarantee a playful and rocking atmosphere, lifting the ancient music traditions to a higher level of funk and Afrobeat-like music.

The Sway Machinery's obsessive sounds are intended as part of a night on the Gloria stage where musical hypnosis is the overall theme. Roskilde Festival was lucky to get ahold of the American band, as one of the originally scheduled acts is unfortunately unable to play.

One cancellation
Son Palenque were supposed to play as part of this theme on the Gloria stage Saturday night, but unfortunately they won't be able to make it. Their European tour is postponed to 2013.

See you at Roskilde Festival 5 – 8 July 2012
(warm-up from 30 June to 4 July)

Our intimate stage Gloria presents a challenging schedule of mesmerising music from Africa, The Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

The musical trance and persistent repetition in the rhythms and vocal harmonies are common among the very different artists appearing in this schedule.

With their Arabian oboes, exotic major scales and persistent percussion rhythms HAMADCHA SUFI TARIQA of ESSAOUIRA (MAR) creates a unique space that is both timeless and drags you down through the centuries. The roots of this music reach more than 500 years back in time and are part of the mystic and poetic sufi tradition of Islam.

Besides the Moroccan orchestra, which has been announced today, another two acts are a part of the schedule. SON PALENQUE is the leading band of the genre Palenque that was founded among fugitive, African slaves in the village of Palenque de San Basilio, Columbia hundreds of years ago.

With about 30 years and a whole series of albums under the belt, Son Palenque fuses cumbia, highlife and Afrobeat in their own transatlantic mixture. The old foxes deliver a soundtrack that is alive and vibrant, even if past history goes far back in time.

MAJOVCI GROUP is synonymous with a unique form of wedding music, an almost trance-like sound played on a zurla – a kind of obo with the same sound as bagpipes – and giant tapan drums.

Majovci Group’s music and band members are direct descendants of this tradition, which dates back more than a thousand years. With this fascinating dance orchestra, you’ll get an exotic breath of air from Eastern Europe’s colourful past.

Yet again, Roskilde Festival is the place to be when you want to be challenged and expand your musical genres. This ‘block’ is just a small section of a very wide and rich musical lineup that embrace all continents and remote corners of the world.

More music to come
It's getting close but Roskilde Festival is not quite done yet. The last acts in the lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.

Festival News Written 2012-05-30 10:23:37

DR. JOHN TO PLAY ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The legend from New Orleans is added to the lineup along with electronic summer sounds from Africa Hitech and Giraffage.

Today's new music announcements span a genre spectrum from silver-grey voodoo rock to young electronica. Roskilde Festival welcomes the brightest times of the year with music from different genres, filled with a sunny taste.

DR. JOHN and THE LOWER 911 feat. JON CLEARY (US) give a demonstration of what the music city New Orleans excels in. Since the acid-rocking breakthrough with Gris Gris from the late 60s, Dr. John's swampy voodoo funk rock has become an institution. The great medicine man's latest album, Locked Down, is a round of classic swinging roots rock filled with golden Farfisa organ, brass, female choir singers and a well-oiled showy feel.

AFRICA HITECH (UK) consists of two experienced and respected lads in progressive electronic music, Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek. With Africa Hitech the two Brits weave together a global-scented sound tapestry that contains traces of not only Africa and the Caribbean but also Chicago and London's steamy nightclubs.

GIRAFFAGE (US) conjures an impressionistic sound full of warm synthesizers and hazy memories of summer holidays. At the same time, the solar-heated, electronic tracks carry enough challenging rhythms and quirky details, making this music for both ears, nostalgia and the mind.

More music to come
It's getting close but Roskilde Festival is not quite done yet. The last acts in the lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Danish premiere: Improv Everywhere
Charlie Todd, the man behind the phenomenon Improv Everywhere creates mega events involving up to 20,000 people that manages to engage people in a humorous and provocative way. Maybe you've heard about 'No Pants Subway Ride'? – if you haven’t, check out the video at the bottom of the page.

This summer you can - among other things - look forward to a huge party including a string quartet and tuxedo and prom dresses at the swimming lake when this American performance artist ad is crew comes to Roskilde.

The sign-maker: Steve Powers
He transforms dead, sad neighbourhoods into poetic street corners with his ‘Love Letters for You’. 50s-kitschy signs and letters are Steve Powers’ characteristics. This international artist also has the prestigious job of painting the grandstand wall by Orange Stage.

The intimate provocateur: Einat Amir
Imagine going into a soundproof box where you meet someone you don’t know. Speakers tell you what to do and in four minutes you’ll get to know another person. Together with Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö, the acclaimed Israeli artist shares her magnificent performance ‘Enough About Me’ with us. In an age where we constantly expose ourselves, it’s Einat Amirs wish that we ask: How well do we really know the person next to us?

The city art craftsmen: RAUMLABOR
The Berlin-based urban activists have created an installation at Roskilde Road Trip in Berlin, which with is interactive facade with street art and poster collages comments critically on the urban space and capitalistic companies.

It might be difficult to imagine how it will all go down at the festival – but you can definitely look forward to be challenged at this year’s festival. Well, if you really dare to join in.

JACK WHITE ADDS EVEN MORE KICK TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The largest music event in Scandinavia presents this year’s lineup.

With the addition of Jack White, this year’s biggest rock icon, Roskilde Festival has added another great headliner to this year’s lineup, which already includes Bruce Springsteen, Björk, The Cure, Mew, Bon Iver, and The Roots.

Today’s lineup release also brings great news to fans of Alison Krauss, Machine Head, Janelle Monáe, The Cult, Santigold and Amadou & Mariam. Extremely melodic The Shins are returning to Roskilde Festival with a brand new and already very popular record, and exciting new bands such as Django Django, Cold Specks and Clock Opera have also been added to the poster.

Music director Rikke Øxner says:

- It's a difficult art presenting an artist at the perfect time in their career, but I think we've succeeded in doing so with a large part of our bookings. Needless to say, we also need to present timeless artists such as The Cult, Alison Krauss and Machine Head, as well as the brand new artists, whose great career still lies ahead of them.

Throughout the years Roskilde Festival has presented unique musical set ups and 2012 will not be any exception. The international super group Apparatjik, DJ Static and music collective Copenhagen Collaboration are already preparing unique Roskilde Festival shows designed especially for this summer’s festival. Furthermore, Roskilde Festival has announced a new stage for electronic music, Apollo, which will host some of the hottest bands of the genre, such as Modeselektor and Pretty Lights.

With the addition of another stage, the total number of bands on Roskilde Festival comes close to 200.

A city of Dreams at Roskilde Festival
Alongside the release of the lineup Roskilde Festival introduced a new ‘city’ at the festival’s camping area – Dream City. Dream City will be designed and built by the festival-goers. It is a place for those, who dream of making a difference and dare to realise their dreams. Here you can bring whatever you dream of, you can build large and tall, expand your ideas wide out and engage the people around you – as long as you do it for the enjoyment of everybody and take home what you brought to the festival to create your project.

“Dream City is one of the additions to this year’s festival, that I personally am most proud of and have greatest expectations for. This gives our audience such a great opportunity to participate and be a part of creating the festival, but I have to admit that we are eager to see how it turns out: Is it possible? Will the festival-goers embrace the project?”, Roskilde Festival’s spokeswoman Christina Bilde expressed during the release.

So far the festival-goers have added 30 ideas to the Dream City ‘idea bank’. The festival-goers develop these ideas in collaboration on the Dream City website and on workshops starting in the end of May.

Festival News Written 2012-04-18 11:05:55

THREE GENRE-DEFINING ICONS COMING TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
Rubén Blades, Paul Kalkbrenner and Lee Ranaldo are added to the lineup.

One week before Roskilde reveals this year's poster, the festival announces three genre-defining men, all of whom are important figures in each of their very different music genres.

RUBÉN BLADES (PAN) is one of the flagships in hard, politically indignated "salsa dura", and he can write several titles on his business card – including lawyer, politician and actor. However, it's as a singer and musician that the Panama legend's star is biggest. With the characteristic piano riffs, congas and brass, Rubén Blades is ready to start up a pure salsa party.

PAUL KALKBRENNER (DE) has become some kind of figurehead for the Berlin techno scene, not least because of the film Berlin Calling in which he played the leading role just as he composed the soundtrack. The latest album Icke Wieder cements the German's talent for creating beautiful and harmonious minimal techno. Now the Berliner beats move to Roskilde Festival. Brace yourself for an electronic party in widescreen, which will probably put the German in the company of former Roskilde conquerors such as Trentemøller and Tiësto.

LEE RANALDO (US) has been a core member of genre-defining noise rock band Sonic Youth for 30 years. The band is now on hiatus, and it has given Ranaldo time to complete his solo project, which was started back in 2010. As a guitarist Ranaldo has been at the intersection between experimental minimalism and alternative rock, and he has recently released his first song-oriented solo rock album Between The Times And The Tides.

Festival News Written 2012-04-04 12:54:39

Apollo Countdown stage is full of young, electronic sounds

Roskilde Festival announces all the acts to play on the new stage in the
warm-up days.
Apollo is the name of Roskilde Festival's new electronic stage - in the
warm-up days (music is playing between 1 - 4 July) the festival calls
the new stage Apollo Countdown.

Following the tradition with the Pavilion Junior stage, Apollo Countdown
focuses primarily on upcoming Nordic artists.

Roskilde Festival is now ready with the full programme. The following 20
acts will deliver all kinds of electronic beats on Apollo Countdown:

EUR 2.64 MILLION PROFIT FROM ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2011
Roskilde Festival 2011 resulted in the second-best economic performance in the festival's history. All profits are now donated to charity.

Approximately 2.64 million euro is the result from the sold-out Roskilde Festival in 2011. That’s the second best economic performance in the festival's history - only surpassed by the festival in 2009 when the results arrived at 2.74 million euro.

This very satisfactory result comes after a sold-out and successful festival with over 120,000 participants. The festival did, however, experience increased costs for clean-up and restoration of the festival area after heavy rain on Saturday evening during the festival.

"It’s fantastic that our 30,000 volunteers are able to generate such a great profit, making Roskilde Festival able to make a difference for other people through our donations," says Steen Jørgensen, chairman of Roskilde Festival Charity Society.

Roskilde Festival Charity Society organises the annual Roskilde Festival with the aim of supporting humanitarian and cultural initiatives. Because of its VAT exemption, Roskilde Festival cannot spend its profits on upcoming festivals or other investments.

All proceeds will be donated to charity before the festival in 2012.

Through the years Roskilde Festival Charity Society has distributed more than 23 million euro million to charity.

Festival News Written 2012-04-01 06:07:43

MORE UPCOMING ACTS READY FOR PAVILION JUNIOR
Roskilde Festival's stage for newly hatched bands will be filled with diverse talent.

SIVERT HØYEM (N) was originally the lead singer in Norwegian band Madrugada, and he continues on his own creating grandiose Scandinavian rock full of inner drama. On the fourth album, Long Slow Distance, he has found inspiration in surprising places (Høyem mentions German kraut rock and French pop as some of them), and the synthesizer often knocks on the door in Høyem’s stormy songs in minor.

NIKI & THE DOVE (S) have already made ​​a big impression outside of Scandinavia with their opulent synth pop. Malin Dahlström’s vocals with the thick Swedish accent are cold and chic, and Gustaf Karlöf’s swarming arrangements are both compact, sophisticated and the perfect backdrop for the duo's melodic songs.

OF THE WAND AND THE MOON (DK) is one of the most prominent bands of the darkened, cultural-pessimistic dark folk genre. The Lone Descent from 2011 frames the mood of an occult mass deep inside a North European forest lit up by torches. But according to the musical mastermind, inspiration is also found in 60s icons such as Lee Hazlewood and Serge Gainsbourg when writing this gloomy doom music.

Festival News Written 2012-03-18 15:08:16

SOUTHERN METAL CLASH AT ROSKILDE FESTIVAL
Baroness, Crowbar, Red Fang and Weedeater as well as Hank3 are added to the lineup.

Today's music package is a big roar from the southern swamps. Roskilde Festival proudly presents some of the best metal produced in the US Southern states. A true riff marathon awaits.

BARONESS have with Red Album and Blue Record made a name for themselves as one of the most progressive front-runners of Southern metal, alongside like-minded Roskilde acts such as Mastodon and Kylesa. The band has announced new material on the way.

CROWBAR incarnates, like few other bands, the murky sludge metal genre with its tuned-down riffs, lazy grooves and roaring vocals. The hefty chaps have retained their metal style since the early 90s, unaffected by any fads.

RED FANG delivers a testosterone-driven update of Black Sabbath, Melvins and Kyuss. A party for everyone convinced that The Lord not only has a long beard but also a checkered shirt, a spiked belt and a can of beer in his hand.

WEEDEATER are without a doubt good-natured Southern folks – the band's first album was called ... And Justice For Y'all with a howdy to Metallica's classic. The music, however, is a deadly mixture of fast riffs, whipped drums and growling vocals.

Slightly out of category – still badass
HANK3 doesn't fully fit this category. Yet, this country/punk/metal pioneer still joins the tough company of the other Southern boys. The job description is clear for this tattooed cowboy: Nashville's cosy country is going down. The spirit of grandfather Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and other icons of the rural music is best translated with outlaw punk'n'country. Hank3's concerts often culminate with a doom section where the country band drops the leather shirts and plays metal.

Festival News Written 2012-03-07 13:04:55

MAC MILLER COMING TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL
The Pittsburgh rapper joins the programme along with A$AP Rocky and Dominique Young Unique.

Three hot, young up-and-coming rappers from the United States share the spotlight in today's announcement.

MAC MILLER has conquered the young hip hop scene just like his bro Wiz Khalifa, who is also playing Roskilde this summer. With his debut album Blue Slide Park Mac Miller has achieved such high sales numbers that his name is now molded in solid gold. Already before the album was released, his live shows have experienced massive interest, also in the Nordic countries. Mac Miller’s light and often bubbly hip hop is packed with summer vibes as well as thoughts and dreams of girls and fame.

A$AP ROCKY is flamboyant hip hop from a self-assured innovator of the New York school. This golden boy’s universe deals with the sweet life of a rap star and womanizer; luckily, musical substance is to be found alongside with the self-proclaimed "pretty motherfucker”'s tales. LiveLoveA$AP consolidated A$AP Rocky's potential within the general music press, his mixtape offers several reasons to why you should look forward to the rapper's Roskilde debut as well.

DOMINIQUE YOUNG UNIQUE has placed her name in the corner where young urban queens such as Nicki Minaj, Santigold and M.I.A reign. Several mixtapes have caught people’s ears. In addition, Dominique Young Unique has performed with acts such as Big Boi, Gucci Mane and N.E.R.D. Also, Kanye West has taken notice of the girl with the speedy tongue, who also prepares to create her own fashion collection. A new hot style icon is ready to entertain the Nordic crowd.

Festival News Written 2012-03-01 03:29:17

MEW TO PLAY ROSKILDE 2012
The exclusive concert with the Nordic favourites is announced along with Mutiny On The Bounty and Ter Haar.

Roskilde Festival proudly presents a much welcome Roskilde reunion. An audience favourite plays an exclusive show – one of very few in 2012 – for its Scandinavian fans.

MEW (DK) has developed a unique sound where Jonas Bjerre's choirboy vocals are the human anchor point in a tornado of sophisticated, dreamy, often hard-hitting rock. Amidst these rugged sounds the band has even written some catchy-as-ever choruses that make pop fans cherish this band. Mew is in the studio these days, so maybe we will even be treated with tunes from an upcoming album.

A statement from Mew's HQ says:

"Having sailed the seven seas, Silas, Jonas and Bo are back in the circle, busy building new floors and sections of the castle that Mew inhabits. Airy halls of light and wind, amber-coloured wood radiating from the bottom up, these rooms are future rooms for us all. This is celebrated with few concerts over the summer and autumn."

Two equally challenging, European bands added to the lineup
Along with the Danish favourites Roskilde Festival adds two European bands who like Mew have a penchant for complexity and edge.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (LUX) plays progressive, hard-hitting and technical rock. This music out of Luxembourg is not just well-executed and with more ideas in one song than many bands use on an entire album. It is also brutally beautiful, melodic guitar rock that will appeal to everyone who digs music with both balls and brain.

TER HAAR (DE) started out as an instrumental band, which you feel in the musicality and attention to detail in all of the trio’s songs – even after guitarist Philipp Koller has started singing. The ambition is edgy, complex post-rock that makes you want to dance rather than count time signatures. Don't miss this band if you've enjoyed Battles' angular rhythm.

Festival News Written 2012-02-19 13:30:36

120 DAYS COMING TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The first Norwegian announcement this festival season takes place in cooperation with the streaming service WiMP.

Roskilde Festival and the streaming service WiMP release this year’s first Norwegian act together.

120 DAYS (N) plays cold, dark electronic rock that sounds like Kraftwerk’s hometown Düsseldorf in the 70s and Manchester in the 90s.

120 Days II (the follow-up to the debut album, which was also followed by a Roskilde-concert in 2007) bodes well for a rock rave full of laser lights, Norwegian cold degrees and house hypnosis.

The Norwegians also play at the music festival by:Larm in Oslo, which takes place right now.

Festival News Written 2012-02-15 15:32:43

SHARP ELECTRONIC ACTS TO PLAY ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
Martyn, Shlohmo and The Toddla T Sound are added to the lineup.

Today's announcement contains three highly promising shooting stars of electronic music who in no way see their respective nationalities as a musical limitation.

MARTYN (NL) mixes dubstep, techno, UK funky and drum'n'bass in a transatlantic genre fusion where Detroit, London, Chicago and Berlin are just some of the electronic metropolises popping out. Martyn was originally regarded as a promising name in bass-heavy dubstep. Today, the Dutch producer and DJ sounds more like a type that will not put up with a single musical label.

SHLOHMO (US) is a child of the same Los Angeles that has delivered former Roskilde artists such as Gonjasufi and The Gaslamp Killer. The young beat smith cuts into a personal niche with his delicate, electronic music. The music is based on several thresholds, including abstract hip hop, nature programme soundtracks in the vein of Boards of Canada and post-London dubstep.

THE TODDLA T SOUND (UK) goes all the way with a show featuring a sonic vortex of dancehall, house, garage and countless other dance genres from both Great Britain and the Caribbean. Sheffield's own Toddla T has DJ’ed longer than he has been able to obtain a driver's licence. Today he is a well-established British DJ act, for instance at the hot London club Fabric and on BBC Radio 1. With The Toddla T Sound, the prodigy enters the stage.

Festival News Written 2012-02-15 15:31:55

WEST AFRICAN SOUNDS COMING TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
Terakaft and Boubacar Traoré are added to the lineup.

Today's new music announcements add Malian tone colours to Roskilde Festival's lineup, which is further globally influenced.

TERAKAFT plays hypnotic desert rock full of thirst, spirituality and shimmering electric guitar sounds. The band has previously shared members with Tinariwen, and the band name means caravan in the blue people's, the Tuareg, language. When you hear the music you can almost feel the desert sun burn down on the wrapped-up musicians. Terakaft is affiliated with Roskilde favourites Tinariwen who played at Roskilde Festival for the first time in 2001. We are proud to expand the knowledge of another great band from Sahara's sandy plains.

BOUBACAR TRAORÉ is a West African veteran whose status in his native country is on par with Ali Farka Touré. Having played for over 40 years, Boubacar Traoré (also called Kar Kar, 'the dribler', in his football-playing youth) makes his Roskilde debut, and not one day too soon. Actually, it's a minor legend whom we can finally welcome at Roskilde Festival. With a voice that sounds like it has slow-ripened in the sun, Traoré plays the blues with the acoustic guitar as the main accompaniment.

Festival News Written 2012-02-01 02:23:54

REFUSED COMES TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
Cerebral Ballzy and Warbringer are also added to the line-up.

This Wednesday's announcements tremble with fervour, power and nerve.

REFUSED (S) has announced a series of concerts followed by a near-religious ecstasy with fans of metal, punk and (post-)hardcore. The Shape Of Punk To Come – one of the hardcore genre's undisputed masterpieces – resulted in Refused splitting up while this hand grenade of an album cemented their status as one of the most important bands of hardcore. Their revolutionary hardcore is packed with rhythmic complexity and daring experiments. The Swedes' inflamed rebel music has given them an international reputation and inspired an entire generation of hard-hitting bands.

CEREBRAL BALLZY (US) seems madly in love with the 80s hardcore punk scene. Their loud songs are straightforward, brutal and without revolutionary ambitions besides placing a nuclear crater between pop and punk. The band's self-titled debut is 20 minutes of unpretentious, musical ultra-violence and cements the band as one of Brooklyn's most aggressive and party-loving.

WARBRINGER (US) has a starting point in thrash metal with its gas-guzzling tempos and wind-swept guitar solos. But the Californian band is more than just a tribute to old records by Slayer and Metallica. Hardened by intense touring and sweaty moshpits since 2004, the L.A. thrashers’ brutal songs mutate in new ways – often with a destructive undercurrent of death metal and newer, more progressive tendencies.

Festival News Written 2012-01-29 10:18:00

THE ROOTS WILL PLAY ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The American hip hop collective is added to the line-up together with Swedish artist Jonathan Johansson.

Roskilde Festival has good news for fans of hip hop and Swedish, elegant pop.

THE ROOTS (US) play at Roskilde Festival as the only Scandinavian job this summer. The American hip hop collective rarely visits Europe nowadays. The performance at Roskilde Festival will be a welcome opportunity to see The Roots where they are best. On stage. ?uestlove, Black Thought and co lead the way when it comes to hip hop packed with hot neo-soul, social indignation, humour, funk and improv-minded jazz. Many people call The Roots the best live band of hip hop for their swing and rock band feeling.

JONATHAN JOHANSSON (S) has already conquered lots of pop hearts with his elegant and catchy pop. With his Swedish lyrics and tasteful 80s-leaning arrangements, Johansson has also attracted attention all the way across the Atlantic. Jonathan Johansson continues the Swedish tradition of writing superior, slightly melancholic pop songs with a big aim. He stylishly and coolly distills romance and soul into black shiny pop songs, making fans of Depeche Mode and New Order cheer.

The festival would like to hear what the audience think. Until 5 February the audience can request up to three acts they think deserve some time in the spotlight.

Pavilion Junior is the stage for young talent during Roskilde Festival's warm-up days, this year playing from 1 - 4 July. Here the acts of tomorrow play concerts before they might be ready to fly on to the bigger stages.

Roskilde Festival's booking agent Stefan Gejsing says:

"We see it as one of our foremost tasks to present new music. Pavilion Junior has become a key platform for new bands, and the attention surrounding the stage is great from both the underground and the more established music industry."

1. must be primarily from the Nordic countries
2. are unknown to the general festival audience
3. have never played at Roskilde Festival before
4. deserve a career boost, in your opinion
5. represent a genre variation similar to that found on Roskilde Festival's other stages
6. have the courage to play in front of 2000 people
7. kick ass, make blood freeze, hair stand on end, heads shake, dance shoes glow, etc.

Festival News Written 2012-01-22 02:12:06

THE CURE TO PLAY ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
Robert Smith's dark-romantic rock band is joined by AraabMuzik and Cold Specks.

Roskilde Festival has another major act ready on a dark winter’s day. The festival proudly presents a legendary band who has not played at Roskilde Festival since 2001.

THE CURE (UK) incarnates dark, British rock. In Scandinavia they are a huge act and a true audience favourite, not least due to a series of exceptional concerts at Roskilde Festival throughout the band's long career. Dark-edged albums such as Pornography and Disintegration have secured The Cure a legendary status among rock critics. At the same time, Robert Smith and his black entourage are popular among a wide audience because of hits such as "Close To Me" and "Friday I'm In Love".

Two younger acts in the company of the legends
The Cure is joined by a couple of younger artists:

COLD SPECKS (CAN) plays some kind of classic, American blues folk with a distinctive singer at the centre. With soft pickings on her acoustic guitar – occasionally accompanied by a little cello and piano – the 23-year-old Al Spx creates a goosebumps-inducing atmosphere. A brand-new debutant with a voice from the old days.

Festival News Written 2012-01-15 12:56:41

FIRST DANISH BANDS ARE READY FOR ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
I Got You On Tape, Larsen & Furious Jane and an acid rock package from the label El Paraiso are added to the programme.

After a December full of international heavyweights, Roskilde Festival starts the new year with a batch of Danish bands.

I GOT YOU ON TAPE retakes Roskilde Festival as a band that risen significantly from the ranks since their last visit at the festival in 2009. The Danes are well on their way to becoming central on the Nordic alternative scene. I Got You On Tape’s new album is called Church Of The Real, and with a sporadic disco inspiration, church organ and catchy choruses, the well-playing four-piece will ensure a grandiose atmosphere with their melodic poppy rock songs.

LARSEN & FURIOUS JANE is a well-kept secret of the lucky few. Not for long. With a solid grasp on songwriting, Larsen & Furious Jane have created a handful of albums that uses well-written, absolutely non-Danish sounding indie rock to explore the rather disgruntled mood as it sounds coming from a group of Danes.

EL PARAISO is a new Danish record label focusing on experimental, mind-expanding music. From the label’s psychedelic menu we present acid rockers CAUSA SUI, the band EL PARAISO ENSEMBLE put together especially for Roskilde 2012 and the kraut and post-rock trio PAPIR. Look forward to a package full of thick, cosmic acid from some of Denmark's most respected underground bands.

Festival News Written 2012-01-07 03:28:01

ROSKILDE FESTIVAL INTRODUCES NEW STAGE
Apollo is the name of the new music stage that focuses on electronic music.

Roskilde Festival presents a new stage at this year's festival. Apollo – named after the god of music in Greek mythology – continues the festival's tradition of having an innovative, curious music profile as well as a dynamic use of the land that lies underneath Scandinavia’s biggest music event.

Apollo will primarily present electronic music.

Roskilde Festival's programmer Claes Roepstorff says:

"We have promoted leading electronic artists since the early nineties; from The Orb and Daft Punk to Tiësto whom we secured an international breakthrough. Apollo will continue this tradition and present artists that have a big sound but do not take up much space on a stage."

Flexible outdoor stage
Apollo will be located at the campsite. During the festival warm-up days as a mobile stage – and during the last four days fixed situated at the so-called Agora C near the skatepark.

With Apollo, the festival now has a flexible outdoor stage that can handle both smaller, introvert electronic acts and a large, festive crowd. The new stage will have a capacity between 3000 and 5000 – its closest stage relatives, size-wise, are Odeon and Pavilion.

Apollo Countdown: mobile "ninja stage" during warm-up
Already during the warm-up days you can experience electronic music with a Roskilde Festival quality stamp. Apollo Countdown is active the same days as the Pavilion Junior stage and becomes what Roskilde Festival's stage section calls some kind of mobile "ninja stage" that has a new location every day. Following the tradition of Pavilion Junior, focus is on young Scandinavian talents. When the rest of the festival programme begins, Apollo becomes more stable and is fixed at the same spot.

A new member joins Roskilde Festival’s stage family. The idea for Apollo is launched after sparring with enthusiasts from the electronic music scene, and the outline of the stage is drawn in this network. Roskilde Festival is very happy about this new platform for today's sharpest electronic acts.

See you at Roskilde Festival 5 – 8 July 2012
(warm-up from 30 June to 4 July)

Festival News Written 2011-12-27 15:01:29

Friendly Fires and tUnE-yArDs to play Roskilde Festival 2012

Two colourful summer bands join the festival programme on one of the
shortest days of the year.
Roskilde Festival announces two festive and colourful music acts in the
middle of the winter darkness and the late Christmas shopping frenzy.

*FRIENDLY FIRES (UK) *have updated their post-punk in a more sunny
direction. 2011?s Pala is full of tropic disco, funk and pop.
Friendly Fires aim with jubilant enthusiasm for a sexy, electronic
stadium sound that reaches out to dancing shoes in the back row. The
British band has already proven its qualities as a live band on Roskilde
Festival?s Odeon stage in 2009. Since then, their star has grown
bigger as a group of first-class party-starters.

*TUNE-YARDS (US) *is the new prodigy of mad pop. The woman with the
androgynous African voice is a sister-in-spirit of Animal Collective,
Björk and Dirty Projectors. Merrill Garbus' music waddles and hobbles
charmingly out there, high-fiving East Africa, R&B, hip hop and
avant-garde along the way. A kind of sunshine pop for hyperactive,
playful people with paint in the face and pumping blood full of
glucose.

December has given us everything from Bruce Springsteen to Swedish
grindcore with Nasum. Roskilde Festival is proud that the programme so
far falls well in line with the ambitions to introduce both new or old,
big or small, and generally getting around different genres to the wide
audience. And the festival is looking forward to bringing even more
music in all kinds of colour scales, sizes and musical orientations.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-12-15 12:18:24

ROSKILDE 2012

THE FIRST METAL ACTS RUIN THE PEACE OF CHRISTMAS
Devildriver and Nasum are added to the 2012 programme.

The Christmasy spirit of December is strongly challenged by today's two new bands who mark the first metal influence on the Roskilde programme.

DEVILDRIVER (US) conquers your ears with pumped-up thrash, hardcore and death metal in well-balanced doses. Through intense touring and discipline, Dez Fafara and his companions have established themselves as a hard-working and uncompromising unit in the name of metal. Roskilde Festival is looking forward to giving the stage to a live band that knows how to make their audience surrender to the sign of the horns.

NASUM (S) is responsible for some of the most exquisite musical punishments of the fast grindcore genre. The often ultra-short and explosive attacks have made Nasum one of the genre's finest. The band's vocalist Mieszko Talarczyk died during the tsunami in 2004. Keijo Niinimaa from the grind mates Rotten Sound, who played at Roskilde Festival in 2008, now delivers the vocals on the Nasum’s goodbye tour, which also brings them to Roskilde Festival.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The American rock icon and his faithful E Street Band play our Orange Stage this summer.

The deal is signed, sealed and delivered, and Roskilde Festival can now confirm that a rock dream comes true in 2012. This year's December announcements reach their climax with the confirmation of a true legend.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND (US) are ready to take on Orange Stage this summer with a characteristically long concert full of golden rock anthems. It is a true highlight in over 40 years of festival history to finally announce this rock icon on one of the most iconic stages in the world.

Having this denim-clad superhero play at Roskilde Festival is no longer a dream scenario. His influence on rock history can hardly be overstated. Without this masterful songwriter and storyteller, a whole generation of younger bands would not sound the way they do.

Regardless of age and knowledge of Bruce Springsteen, it is practically a civic duty to experience this artist who – despite his simple and unpretentious craft – towers up on the rock horizon.

Roskilde Festival is looking forward to presenting a summer’s night with poetic rock songs about New Jersey, the hopelessness of blue-collar working days and life on empty small town streets when you are born to run.

Fesstival News Written 2011-12-07 12:38:36

BON IVER TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The bearded folk hero is a new early triumph for the coming music programme.

Roskilde Festival adds a solid act to the programme for fans of alternative folk from God's own country.

BON IVER (US) broke through with the lonely, sobbingly beautiful debut album For Emma, Forever Ago. On the self-titled album from 2011 front man Justin Vernon has extended his sound with a big, well-playing band and appears as a progressive folk artist with a penchant for soft rock, grandiose sounds and instrumental digressions.

Audience favourite
Bon Iver has really stepped into the spotlight. It was also evident when Roskilde Festival asked its audience for music requests the last time around. The bearded American with the fabulous falsetto is now in the top 10 of the hottest Roskilde requests in the company of the biggest stars, stadium bands and legends. Roskilde is happy to be able to fulfill the request.

Highly praised album
Bon Iver's latest album has been received with lots of praise:

“Fully realised in its ambition, Bon Iver possesses all the austere beauty and understated emotiveness of its predecessor.” (Uncut)

“Bon Iver is about flow, from one scene and arrangement and song and memory and word into the next-- each distinct but connected” (Pitchfork)

“Bon Iver's musical palette is a far broader, full blown band affair.” (Mojo)

Festival News Written 2011-12-04 13:10:14

BJÖRK TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2012
The Icelandic superstar is ready to pay another visit to Scandinavia's biggest festival.

Roskilde Festival kicks off the new season with a true ”Roskilde act”. One of the most distinct profiles and an always surprising musician.

BJÖRK (ISL) combines, like few others, broad appeal with artistic eccentricity. She is at once a musical sorceress with Icelandic lava flowing through the veins, iconic pop star and electronic wonder kid. Throughout the last 18 years, each new album has been a bold move in a new direction, and Roskilde Festival has been one of the regular stops on her musical travels.

Constantly innovative
She is the quintessential modern musician, ceaselessly innovating and completely multi-dimensional in the way she uses performance, technology, fashion, video and art to complement her music. Album projects for Björk always comprise of several components but with her eighth studio album Biophilia, released in October this year, she presents her most inter-disciplinary project to date. A wide-ranging multi-media experience, Biophilia comprises a studio album, apps for each song, a website, custom-made musical instruments, live shows and educational workshops. Björk has collaborated with app developers, scientists, writers, inventors, musicians, and instrument makers to create a unique exploration of the universe and its physical forces.

Successful in many ways
From the release of her first album Debut in 1993, Björk has now sold over 20 million albums worldwide. She has acquired significant critical acclaim, also winning 4 Brit Awards, 4 MTV VMA’s and in 2010, the Polar Music Prize in recognition for her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice".

Roskilde Festival is proud to welcome this superstar back on the poster for the first time since 2007.

Festival News Written 2011-10-17 13:30:12

ROSKILDE FESTIVAL OPENS FOR MUSIC REQUESTS
The booking proces for Roskilde Festival 2012 has started, and the audience can put their touch on next year's poster.

The audience opinion about the music programme is important for Roskilde Festival. Therefore, the festival invites everyone to submit their music requests for next year's programme through roskilde-festival.com. Anyone with an internet connection can submit their favourite acts directly to Roskilde Festival's booking office.

Roskilde Festival accepts music requests for next year's festival from 12 October 2011 and until the end of the month.

Ready to go far
Roskilde Festival's music director Rikke Øxner says about the tradition of working with music requests:

"The audience's music requests give us an invaluable knowledge and inspiration. The requests give us an impression of general trends. And if there is an often recurring act among the requests, we're ready to go far to get it booked. That was the case with, for instance, Iron Maiden and Arctic Monkeys in 2011."

Rikke Øxner emphasises that there is no guarantee that all requests will be on next year's poster – even if many people request the same act.

"Unfortunately, we're not masters of everything. So our plans don't always fit with the artists' tour calendars, and often we can't just call upon artists who aren't touring at the moment. Of course, it's always paramount that the artists we book can deliver the goods at Roskilde Festival."

You can submit up to five different band requests once via the festival's website until 1 November. All artist names have to be spelled correctly, otherwise they are not included in the festival's statistics. Therefore, everyone is advised to check the album cover one extra time before submitting.

EGYPTIAN CENTRE FOR LOCAL MUSIC RECEIVES THE ROSKILDE FESTIVAL WORLD MUSIC AWARD (RFWMA) 2011
The board of the RFWMA has chosen the El Mastaba Center for Folk Music as this year’s recipient of the award worth € 30,000.

The award will be presented to representants from the Center at WOMEX on Sunday 30 October. WOMEX takes place in Copenhagen from 26 – 30 October in Copenhagen.

The El Mastaba Center for Folk Music aims to spread knowledge and to document, preserve and develop a range of traditional Egyptian music genres. The Center is awarded with the RFWMA particularly for its effort to introduce traditional Egyptian music to youth and children. The Center was founded in July 2000.

Steen Jørgensen, chairman of the Roskilde Festival Charity Society, explains why the El Mastaba Center for Folk Music was chosen as this year’s recipient: ”It is important to us that we support the Egyptian and other Arabic populations in these times. Music and its surrounding culture has and will always be a strong medium and source of inspiration for people wanting a free life. We wish to help the El Mastaba Center to ensure their continuated work with preserving and developing traditional Egyptian music for all generations.”

Peter Hvalkof, world music booker at Roskilde Festival, is happy that the RFWMA in 2011 is given to the El Mastaba Center: ”The kind of work that the El Mastaba Center does to ensure a basis for traditional Egyptian music needs to be recognised for its inspirational value to the entire scene for world music. It makes really good sense to be able to follow-up on an outstanding concert with Rango of the El Mastaba Center at this year’s Roskilde Festival in awarding the Centre the RFWMA.”

Upon receiving the good news, founder and Director of the El Mastaba Center for Folk Music, Zakaria Ibrahim, stated: ”We are very honoured to receive this award and delighted to join our peers in Zanzibar and Mali whom we understand share similar motivations in developing cultural projects and preserving traditions. I am also very happy I had the opportunity to visit Roskilde Festival in the summer for a performance with our Rango musicians on the new Gloria stage.”

This is the third and, until further notice, final year Roskilde Festival presents the World Music Award (RFWMA) to a fortunate recipient at WOMEX.
The RFWMA was founded to support development through education in traditional as well as contemporary local music forms in order to ensure a cultural stepping stone in the developing countries with particular regard to children and youth.

The Award will be presented to representants from the El Mastaba Center by the director of the Oslo World Music Festival, Alexandra Archetti Stølen, during the WOMEX Award Ceremony on Sunday 30 October 12:00 – 14:00 at DR Koncerthuset/Studio 2.

Roskilde Festival Charity Society would like to thank WOMEX and EFWMF (The European Forum of Worldwide Music Festivals) for their support and help in finding the recipients of the RFWMA.

The Swedish music festival Arvika has just declared itself bankrupt. The festival, which was supposed to take place between 14 and 16 July, has not sold enough tickets and is forced to shut down.

This leaves a lot of festival-goers in an unfortunate situation as their Arvika ticket suddenly has no value. Roskilde Festival finds this a great shame. Therefore, everyone with a three-day ticket to Arvika get free admission to this year's otherwise sold-out Roskilde Festival.

"It's always sad when a great music event waves the white flag. Most of all it’s a shame for the audience, who are suddenly deprived of a festival experience. Therefore, we welcome them at Roskilde, and it will not cost them anything but their Arvika ticket," says spokeswoman Christina Bilde.

Everyone with an Arvika ticket wanting admission at Roskilde Festival simply has to bring their Arvika ticket to the entrance to Roskilde Festival, and then they get access to the orange party in Roskilde.

See you at Roskilde Festival 30 June - 3 July 2011. Warm-up 26 - 29 June.
The camp site opens 25 June at 18:00.

Festival News Written 2011-06-15 22:37:57

ROSKILDE FESTIVAL COMPLETES MUSIC PROGRAMME IN STYLE
Portishead, My Chemical Romance and Kaizers Orchestra are the flagships of this final announcement that, which presents six new acts.

Halfway through June Roskilde has finally closed the last deals the performing artists. This results in three new bands at the top of the poster and a total of 163 artists in the 2011 programme.

PORTISHEAD (UK) is a true headliner, not least because they have set a fashion in the trip hop genre. The Bristol band took caught everyone by surprise when they after a 10-year-long break returned with a new album, which was a true rebirth of the band. Portishead has already announced its fourth album. Hopefully the Roskilde audience will be treated to some samples this summer.

KAIZERS ORCHESTRA (N) are quite taken with the audience in Denmark. The band band has played three gigs at Roskilde Festival. The kaizer-like favourites are ready to take on Roskilde once again. The Norwegians are working on chapter two of the album trilogy Violeta Violeta that revisits what made the band popular to begin with, unscrupulous gypsy rock delivered in Norwegian.

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE (US) returns to Roskilde Festival as a new band. They have lost the raven robes and the thick mascara around the eyes. Instead, the Americans engage in loud colours and metallic power pop with sci-fi lyrics. Fortunately, My Chemical Romance have not lost the big gestures in their theatrical concert appearances.

HOFFMAESTRO (S) are Swedish ska kings on a shopping spree in genres. The album Skank-a-Tronic Punkadelica has already become somewhat of a neo-classic in their home country, and in concert the 10 blue'n'yellow members are notorious and famous for their danceable intensity

HYMNS FROM NINEVEH (DK) make the audience hold its breath with their beautiful, acoustically based songs about faith, doubt, hope and love. The arrangements are rich with instruments such as violin, accordion, saw and banjo. Music that will make the angels sing.

DANIEL NORGREN (S) has a devastating insight into the blues and sounds like Tom Waits in a bar fight with Muddy Waters. The Swede's ability to squeeze the sound of an entire garage rock band into a simple blues riff is nothing less than impressive.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-06-11 06:33:06

Nine acts ready to take new Roskilde stage

Roskilde Festival's new stage, Gloria, will be visited by nine new and very different acts, all of whom deal with more toned-down atmospheres.

Roskilde Festival offers many different musical impressions. In today's announcement the festival focuses on the more quiet, thoughtful and soothing impressions. Today's music package contains nine names, all of whom will perform at Roskilde Festival's new stage, Gloria. With room for 1000 people, the stage can deliver very intimate experiences.

ACORN FALLING (DK) is a fascinating and dark mixture of ambient and goth. The mastermind is Lars Kivig who brings to Roskilde Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds percussionist Thomas Wydler and Current 93 cellist John Contreras.

DESOLATE (DE) is dubstep with German roots. Desolate is ready to deliver minimalistic electronica with clear references to chill-out and deep house.

KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT (FIN) has a point of departure in folk music, which they remodel in short instrumental songs, built up by simple repetitive riffs and noisy drone scapes.

ROLL THE DICE (S) is a Swedish duo who produce melancholic soundscapes with their electronica. You can hear creaking and crunching sounds while humming rhytmics move the music forward.

JOHAN SARA JR. (N) delves into the traditional Sami way of singing, joik, to which he adds elements from both electronica and jazz. The result is a hypnotic and organic hybrid of tradition and new ideas.

SVARTE GREINER (N) is the exploration of a dark and disturbing universe. Lots of drones and other sonic atmospheres take the audience into a unique and frightening world.

TU FAWNING (US) go exploring several decades of folk music. The Americans are armed with a bass drum, string instruments and a refreshing musical recklessness.

VALBY VOKALGRUPPE (DK) is a a female, a capella group. In concert you will hear both sudden primal screams and improvisations.

WALLS (UK) are soft, blurry, beautiful and hypnotic electronica that will ease your mind and soul. Look forward to glitchy beats and German inspirations such as Tangerine Dream.

With less than a month to the start of this year's Roskilde Festival, the staff is busy preparing. This includes the festival's music office who now presents the final six names for Pavilion Junior, the stage for upcoming music, playing in the festival's warm-up days from 26 to 29 June.

EMMA ACS is just 19 years old and is Denmark's new acid rock queen. Her debut album Champagne is full of tripped-out 60s nostalgia where both sitars, Farfisa organ and hippie rhetoric send purple rings of smoke into the air.

BATTLEKAT has previously been hiding under the cryptic name Just A Number 05272011, and both the group's anonymity as well as its electro-pop songs have made the trendsetting web zine Pitchfork pay attention.

THE ECLECTIC MONIKER plays calypso-inspired indie rock. No less than nine members help produce the thick sound.

THE MALPRACTICE is a new output from the ever-productive Johannes Gammelby who also plays in Beta Satan. With The Malpractice the audience can look forward to heavy and tightly played indie rock.

MESSY SHELTERS is a one-man band made by Mikkel Bolding who quite effectively juggles the genres. On his latest album Root System both rock equilibrium and minimalist electronica are on the menu.

The final acts are soon in place
Roskilde Festival still needs to announce a handful of acts before the 2011 programme is fully ready. They see the light of day soon just as the festival will soon unveil this year's opening act on Orange Stage.

Festival News Written 2011-05-27 23:21:50

TV On The Radio to Roskilde Festival 2011

The American band is added to the main programme together with Alcoholic Faith Mission and Per Vers. The festival also adds 4 Guys From The Future, Essence and Reptile & Retard to the upcoming stage.

Today Roskilde Festival adds three acts to the festival programme and three bands to the Pavilion Junior stage for upcoming music. Today's music package is figureheaded by a Brooklyn band that has really left its mark on the alternative music scene since its first release in 2003.

TV ON THE RADIO (US) manages like few others to balance rock, soul, funk and post-punk and to mix experiments with catchy tunes, resulting in a standing ovation from both music fans and critics. In the course of four albums, TV On The Radio have developed and refined their expression – and the latest album, Nine Types of Light, shows a band unafraid of using festive and upbeat elements. In David Sitek, the band has a masterful sound architect creating depth in the many musical layers. But when TV On The Radio comes on stage, they come to life as a hot and hard-working rock'n'roll band.

Today's music package also offers up a couple of Danish acts for the festival programme, playing from 30 June to 3 July.

ALCOHOLIC FAITH MISSION (DK) sounds like an army of hopeless romantics with drum machines and acoustic guitars as their weapons. The big world has already started paying attention to the Danish band. Experience a band that by all fairness should become the next big Danish indie export.

PER VERS (DK) is a Danish rap icon at the top of his game. He has just released the album Ego on which he deals with thoughtful subjects such as family and relationships. In concert Per Vers really radiates a special charisma that is hard to resist, just like his music.

Music on Junior
Roskilde Festival is still looking to fill the final slots on the upcoming stage Pavilion Junior, playing in the festival's warm-up days from 26 to 29 June. Today's package includes three Danish additions to the stage.

4 GUYS FROM THE FUTURE play intricate art-pop with nods towards both the US and England, ESSENCE plays fast and hard thrash metal with both complexity and depth while REPTILE & RETARD deliver tight electro pop with an energy that can make most people gasp for breath.

Festival News Written 2011-05-20 12:50:49

4 NEW SCANDINAVIAN ACTS ARE READY
Graveyard (S), Love Shop (DK), Next Life (N) and The Raveonettes (DK) are added to the programme.

Even though the Roskilde poster is already up all over the world, the festival continues to deliver new acts. This week's music package is a true Scandinavian rock adventure in different colours, which is a true treat for music lovers this summer.

GRAVEYARD (S) shuts up all critical voices who have ever claimed that rock is dead and buried. The Swedish band finds inspiration in heavy rock from the 70s where stoner grooves and heavy riffs roar along with vocalist Joakim Nilsson’s excellent and powerful vocals.

LOVE SHOP (DK) is ready to play Roskilde Festival for the sixth time. Having lost Hilmer Hassig and Henrik Hall, Jens Unmack is the only original band member left. But anyone who has heard one of Love Shop’s concerts during this spring has seen a singer who lively and life-affirmingly steps out of the shadows. Love Shop’s pop magic has always been greater than the individual members.

NEXT LIFE (N) has been called both ’gameboy metal’ and ’chip-core’. The strangely precise descriptions make sense as the Norwegians combine fast and scorching metal with Asian avant-garde electronica and computer game beats. The guitar-synth-drums combo has been used several times before, but never in the manner of Next Life.

THE RAVEONETTES (DK) are constantly on the hunt for the primal source of rock. With this year’s critically acclaimed album Raven in the Grave, the duo takes a step in a new direction. Here 80s-esque dark synths and melancholic guitar crunch live side by side with the rock’n’roll that started the whole story of Denmark's biggest rock export ever. Roskilde Festival welcomes home The Raveonettes.

More music on the way
Roskilde Festival is still working on getting the last acts ready for the programme. The audience can look forward to more music in several genres and for several stage sizes.

Festival News Written 2011-05-20 12:45:54

Roskilde Festival announces four new acts

Roskilde Festival adds new names to the programme, delivering everything
from Roma rap to boogie funk.
The final programme for Roskilde Festival 2011 is soon in place. Today
the festival announces four acts, featuring four very different musical
expressions. Like an image of the musical diversity in the overall music
programme.**

*DÃM FUNK with MASTER BLAZTER (US)* is a California boogie-funk
ambassador. Like a young Prince, Dãm Funk lives and breathes to keep
familiar funk genres of the 80s alive while at the same time leading
them all into a musical zeitgeist where everything is more cutting-edge.
Dãm Funk brings the singer Master Blazter to Roskilde.

*NICOLAS JAAR (US) *has been dubbed electronic music’s big American
hope. His music is both focused on rhythm and repetition. Jaar moves in
and out of electro pop, Afro jazz, sound collages, hip hop and many
other styles – all tied together by his melancholy vocal.

*PRINCE FATTY SOUNDSYSTEM feat. LITTLE ROY and HORSEMAN (UK) *have
proclaimed that they were made for dubbing your feet and stimulating
your brain. Even though Prince Fatty Soundsystem originally was created
as a musical ad for a clothing brand, it became such a great success on
British airwaves that mastermind Pelanconi decided to continue the
party. Look forward to rocking along to these sounds of dub and reggae.

*SHUTKA ROMA RAP (MKD)* is a true Roma rap collective. With Shutka Roma
Rap, this politically vilified people have finally gotten a strong and
uncompromising musical voice with the courage to add fuel to the
political fires and speak up for a generation of young Romany people who
want to root out racism. We are proud to present a rap act with a
message – and something at stake.

Festival News Written 2011-04-27 01:20:43

SWEDISH POP COMET ADDED TO THE ROSKILDE PROGRAMME
Daniel Adams-Ray is coming to Roskilde Festival 2011. The blue’n’yellow pop sensation will also play at a special Roskilde evening along with two other artists in Stockholm on 26 May. The event is free of charge.
In Sweden, DANIEL ADAMS-RAY is on everyone's lips as the new pop comet. Now all Roskilde-goers can start getting to know the name as he is visiting Roskilde Festival this summer.

Daniel Adams-Ray’s debut album is called Svart vitt och allt däremellan and offers irresistible Motown-inspired pop music sung in a melodious Swedish tongue. Singles such as "Dum av dig" and "Gubben i lådan" have already topped the Swedish charts – and it is as if all of Scandinavia is now welcoming Daniel Adams-Ray with open arms.

Roskilde takes Stockholm
Daniel Adams-Ray is also among the performers when Roskilde Festival takes over the Stockholm venue Strand for an evening. The event takes place on 26 May when the festival presents three hot acts, all of whom also play at Roskilde Festival this summer.

Beside Daniel Adams-Ray, the Norrköping duo Little Marbles will play its acoustic-based girl pop. These two Swedish acts are accompanied by Danish newcomer Hammonds, Harrington & Destroy who play a mix of indie rock and folk rock with a punk edge.

Initiative for new music
This live event is an initiative for new music, says Roskilde Festival’s spokeswoman Christina Bilde.

”We want to show what Roskilde Festival also presents year after year, the up-and-coming young bands full of hit-potential. And we want to facilitate meetings by the live stages – we made a similar event in Norway in February, and now it’s Sweden’s turn,” says Christina Bilde.

700 free tickets
The 700 tickets to the event at Strand are completely free of charge. For more information about the event, which the festival calls ROSKILDE@STHLM, sign up for the Facebook event following this link

See you at Roskilde Festival 30 June - 3 July 2011. Warm-up 26 - 29 June.
The camp site opens 25 June at 18:00.

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 12:19:39

Roskilde Festival 2011 is taking shape

68 new names were announced today when Roskilde Festival revealed this year’s poster. The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are among the new headliners at the festival that offers lots of musical experiences.

Today, Roskilde Festival’s music director Rikke Øxner presented this year’s music programme. She announced The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys who will both be at the top of the 2011 poster along with Iron Maiden, M.I.A., Mastodon and Kings of Leon, to mention a few.

"This year's programme contains experiences that you’ll only find at Roskilde Festival. We have some exclusive Scandinavian appearances, e.g. Arctic Monkeys and PJ Harvey play their only Scandinavian festival gig at Roskilde. We also have special setups and series of appearances custom-made for us. Add to that solid setups in genres such as hip hop, metal, electronic music and good old-fashioned rock. There should be something for all music lovers," says Rikke Øxner.

New stage makes room for the skewed and delicate
The music director points out the festival's new intimate stage, Gloria, that has room for only 1,000 people and thus becomes the festival's smallest.

"Gloria gives us the opportunity to present a series of acts whose delicate expression would easily have drowned on the other stages. For instance, Wang Li from China who plays minimal compositions on a Chinese Jew’s harp. We also present chamber pop with American band Dark Dark Dark, jazz with the Danish-American saxophonist John Tchicai together with Elektro, we have singer-songwriters, electronica ... I could go on," she says.

The Gloria stage is also the name associated with an area that was called Nordic last year. This year it is further developed so that it – as an extension of the stage’s musical content – is a quiet and intimate oasis amid the crowds, with a focus on immersion and aesthetics. The area is illuminated at night by a bright halo of yellow lights placed in trees surrounding the square.

Labyrinthine container city at the camp site
Another new development on site is the container town of Poor City that the festival is preparing at the moment. Poor City is the concrete expression of the festival's humanitarian campaign Statement focusing on poverty and inequality and, in particular, homelessness.

"The idea with Poor City is that it is to be shaped as some kind of maze where you can get a little lost and perhaps get a little uncomfortable. The basic idea is to make the audience aware of poverty and inequality in a different way. Hopefully it can evoke both thought and consideration – even at a festival," says Roskilde Festival spokeswoman Christina Bilde.

Roskilde Festival's headliners are the first thing that catches the eye when looking at the brand-new festival poster. We are proud to add THE STROKES and ARCTIC MONKEYS. The former are leaders of the rebirth of rock in the noughties, and they have just kick-started their tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Reportedly, the band has lots of vigour, making the spacious arena rock along to both old and new hits. ARCTIC MONKEYS are the second announcement set with the biggest font size on the poster. The British lads have played amazing concerts at Roskilde Festival in 2006 and 2007. Today they are in just as high demand with the audience as the older and more seasoned bands. We are looking forward to a new round of British, danceable rock from the monkeys who will release a new record on 6 June.

THE MASTODONTS

The classic rock experience is guaranteed with legendary IRON MAIDEN and KINGS OF LEON, both some of today's most popular rock bands. These names were announced as early as 2010 when we put ourselves in the lead of the European festival landscape. MASTODON are, because of the name alone, well qualified to be written with the biggest font size, but if they had called themselves something else, this unorthodox metal band is, because of their music, still one of the coming giant acts. The pop-radicalist M.I.A. and the ever-changing PJ HARVEY provide a counterweight to the masculine rock. They are a couple of admirably provocative furies who constantly choose the warpath rather than the beaten path.

DEADMAU5 played an amazing concert at the Cosmopol stage in 2009, which got an enthusiastic festival audience to surrender completely. This year we get the extended version of the mouse head's electronic party vision. It will be a celebration for both young and old, for techno kids and skeptical rock types. Show up and let yourself be carried away. MAGNETIC MAN has a special relation to Roskilde Festival. Due to the overwhelming reception at Roskilde Festival in 2008, the trio decided to keep the pot boiling and make a whole album. Dubstep fans have enjoyed it ever since, and this year Benga, Skream and Artwork return with a custom-made Roskilde show: we get an extensive, 3-hour-long show with visits from KATY B and a DJ set from SBTRKT. Finally, fans of electronic music will recognise acts such as THE GASLAMP KILLER, JATOMA and DOP among other already announced CHASE & STATUS, MATTHEW DEAR, SHANGAAN ELECTRO and JAGWA MUSIC who will ensure that there is no shortage of electronic parties for all kinds of moods.

Just like there are many ways to spell it, there are just as many opinions as to how the music should sound – and with today's new additions, hip hop is solidly represented at Roskilde Festival 2011. The most talked-about phenomenon of the genre at the moment is called OFWGKTA and comes from Los Angeles. The American hip hop collective's concerts are unforgettable events that have as much in common with a punk rock show as that with a traditional hip hop gig. We are looking forward to presenting this demonic, violent but also funny and manically productive hip hop force of nature. California is not alone in drawing the USA map of hip hop at Roskilde Festival. From Detroit we get a visit from BLACK MILK who on Album of the Year goes for the organic, instrument-based experience, while New Orleans-born CURREN$Y delivers dirty Southern hip hop, representing the Southern states as well as BIG BOI – one half of Outkast – whom we already announced in February. From a different hip hop environment, we present ATMOSPHERE who also draws on jazz, alternative rock and soul. Finally, the Scandinavian region is also represented in Roskilde Festival's massive hip hop supply. L.O.C. – one of the most popular artists across genres in Denmark and a usual suspect at Roskilde Festival – has already been announced, and TIMBUKTU & DAMN! join the programme today. The Swedish hip hopper delivered an unforgettable concert in 2007.

One does not have to look far for intelligent pop at Roskilde Festival. This year we have OH LAND on visit in her homeland. The former ballet dancer shoots up in the international stratosphere with pop music that is edgy, electronic and full of star potential and clever ideas. LYKKE LI has just released a critically acclaimed album filled with heartache, Wounded Rhymes. It does not sound like the recipe for a traditional pop party, but when you know the Swedish woman's stage talent, there is no doubt that she will sweep the audience off their feet. A new voice in electronic music is JAMES BLAKE. His vocoder-marinated, electronic pop is at once experimental and inviting. We are looking forward to seeing how the versatile Brit will entertain Roskilde Festival. YELLE is a glamorous chanteuse with a penchant for disco, flashy costumes and naughty lyrics. Embrace the French language and you could end up with an experience like Robyn's already legendary concerts at the stages Cosmopol and Arena. Finally, in February we had the honour of presenting the futuristic pop diva JANELLE MONÁE whose blend of musical, R&B, alternative rock and hip hop makes one wonder if the young woman is from this part of the Milky Way.

Roskilde Festival has an array of American bands like no other Scandinavian festival. At many of our competitors you only see American names at the top of the programme, at Roskilde Festival you find American names in all sizes and formats.

THE WALKMEN have for too long been a band that only the privileged few know about. The band's biting serenades about longing, frustration and hope ought to win the hearts of everyone who already digs Roskilde favourites The National. SURFER BLOOD have won lots of hearts with their straightforward, uncomplicated guitar pop. Welcome the young lads – they bring songs that are equal parts Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys and Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. BATTLES are reborn as a trio and have a new album coming up. The matchless, weird experimental rock band have said themselves that they look forward to playing Gloss Drop live. They get the chance to prove it at Roskilde Festival and will certainly not pass on such an opportunity. For fans of stars and stripes, of course it does not end here. We have already announced BRIGHT EYES, KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS and JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE – and that is just from the Americana-flavoured corner. No less than 35 American bands have so far found their way onto this year's poster.

A great rock show can contain elements of theatre and horror. ROB ZOMBIE knows that and he visits Roskilde Festival with one of his visually gory shows. Swedish band GHOST play in disguise – they always play their 70s-inspired heavy rock dressed in frocks leaving the audience unaware of the band's true identity. The black metal demons in 1349 are from Norway and always go onstage wearing corpse paint – it is no secret, however, that drummer Frost also plays the drums in Satyricon. You find a different kind of uneasiness with CHRIS CUNNINGHAM who is especially known for his videos for Aphex Twin. Nowadays, the long-haired Brit has moved further toward the music. His live show is a mixture of mixtape, installation, concert and cinema experience, filled with eerie surrealism and mystical sci-fi.

The metal genre is quite a few years old. Roskilde Festival covers both the young and older generations. IRON MAIDEN is obviously one of the most traditional sizes and a name that almost all sub-genres relate to. AUTOPSY and KILLING JOKE also have a dark-edged legend status among fans of the more extreme metal genres. Without these sources of inspiration it is uncertain if we would enjoy the following line of bands, even though they take the genre in entirely different directions. With UNDERØATH, PARKWAY DRIVE and BRING ME THE HORIZON on the poster, we find a new generation and a young audience who are not afraid of a touch of emo in their metal. SOILWORK also joins the programme today. The Swedes have become a huge name wth their audience-friendly version of the Gothenburg metal. And that is not all, we also cover other sub-genres: the prog-metal giants MASTODON, the sludgeheads EYEHATEGOD, psychedelic KYLESA and the unorthodox death metal disciples DÅÅTH have already been added to the programme.

Overseas music plays an increasingly important role for other popular genres in the rich world. We imagine that we have contributed to this by always focusing on music from all over the globe. But often, world music presented outside of its home countries is not the same as the music listened to locally. So, it is not without pleasure that this year we have two acts on the programme that inspire audiences here, there and, not least, as superstars in their home regions: CALLE 13 from Puerto Rico who, despite loads of Latin Grammys, has both edge and a hot show – and FALLY IPUPA from the Democratic Republic of Congo who on the African continent is the new great soukous star. He brings his large ensemble to Roskilde directly from Kinshasa.

BAD RELIGION has since 1980 released a large number of albums that, despite a uniform template, maintains a high quality. Their melodic punk rock has inspired NOFX, Green Day and a whole militia of other punk bands. Unspoiled and without complacency, these Californian silver punks occupy a central spot in the more accessible part of punk rock. SWANS also started in the early 80s, but in New York City, and now the band returns to Roskilde Festival. The American post-punk/post-rock/drone pioneers have recently gotten back together and made the album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. All suspicions of a boring reunion are engulfed in the muddy, suicidal mists that Michael Gira's baritone vocals conjure.We recently announced KILLING JOKE, and the provoking, billous Brits have also inspired numerous bands with their blend of post-punk, industrial and metal. Lead singer Jaz Coleman is one of British rock's many unforgettable personalities who constantly explores new artistic territory and along the way has taken on films, classical music, a Disney soundtrack and has even been honoured by the state of France.

AFROCUBISM is one of this year's biggest stories on the global music scene. The team behind Buena Vista Social Club has finally their original vision in place: a meeting between West Africa and Cuba. The band uses the entire spring touring and playing together so we can expect a group of experienced musicians in great shape. SEUN ANIKULAPO KUTI and FEMI KUTI – sons of the legendary Fela Kuti – have never before played on the same stage. It is true music history that Roskilde Festival has arranged a double concert with the two sons who both, in each their own way, bring the father's legacy on to new generations of funk-hungry music fans. Afrobeat is far from the only African genre that has turned on Western music listeners. Congotronics – the clattering dance music from the streets of Kinshasa – is treated with care by a number of alternative rock bands that share the stage with some of the veterans of the congotronics genre. The full lineup is CONGOTRONICS vs ROCKERS feat. KONONO N°1, DEERHOOF, KASAI ALLSTARS, JUANA MOLINA, WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS and SKELETONS.

As something special this year we have asked Dutch band THE EX to curate a series of performances leading up to their own concert. It is an interesting selection of artists they have invited. We are served a cocktail of British post-punk from reformed JACKDAW WITH CROWBAR, speed-grunge from the French trio API UIZ, a set from DJ /RUPTURE and a first-listen to THE EX front man Arnold de Boers solo project ZEA. As previously mentioned, more and more bands from our part of the world find inspiration from far away, and therefore it is also only a small surprise that THE EX has invited Ethiopian ILILTA BAND to what looks like an inspiring glimpse of the legendary punk band’s many sources of inspiration.

JUSTIN ADAMS and JULDEH CAMARA are responsible for one of many fun and exciting sessions that Roskilde Festival 2011 provides. The meeting between Robert Plant's guitarist and the desert griot will result in a true musical trance that might make you feel the Sahara sand under your feet. And if the trance gets you, you can continue with RANGO from the part of the globe where black Africa meets the Muslim world and GONGA SAIN & MITHU SAIN from Pakistan who – despite the fact that one of the two brothers are deaf – have a reputation that resonate throughout the Indian subcontinent. Get on the carpet and fly up there and out there.

And all the rest...
The acts mentioned above are not a complete presentation of Roskilde Festival 2011. With more space and time we would come up with additional recommendations, but from here everyone can go explore and find their own favourites in our programme on www.roskilde-festival.com

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 12:12:45

Roskilde Festival co-presents Arctic Monkeys in Norway and Sweden

The festival is co-arranger when the British band goes on a mini tour in Scandinavia in May.

Arctic Monkeys have just announced that their fourth album Suck It and See is released on 6 June this year. In this connection the British band goes on a short tour where they will play smaller venues than usual.

Roskilde Festival is co-arranger of the two Scandinavian concerts that take place in the following days:
5 May – Stockholm, Circus (presented together with Luger)
6 May – Oslo, Sentrum Scene (presented together with Goldstar)

Working with music year-round
Roskilde Festival works in the name of music year round. While we are waiting for this year's festival, this British star band delivers the entertainment.

”Normally our focus is 100 % on preparing for the festival, but when something this good is on offer we can't help but accept. We have previously presented Arctic Monkeys at Roskilde Festival in 2006 and 2007 – and we want to support this mini tour that appeals to many of our audiences in all of Scandinavia,” says music director at Roskilde Festival, Rikke Øxner.

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 12:10:28

First fresh bands ready for talent stage

Hammonds, Harrington & Destroy, De Høje Hæle, Trust and Undergang are the first batch of bands announced for Roskilde Festival's warm-up stage Pavilion Junior.

Roskilde Festival dedicates this entire week to the Pavilion Junior stage, presenting the bands of tomorrow in Roskilde's warm-up days from 26 to 29 June. Every day – from Monday to Friday – offers new announcements.

The festival opens this week with a handful of Danish bands.

HAMMONDS, HARRINGTON & DESTROY play melodic, alternative rock with loads of catchy choruses and sing-along potential. Look forward to a rock show with a reckless, almost punk-rock attitude.

DE HØJE HÆLE play unpretentious, Danish-language punk rock loaded with attitude. The band has toured extensively throughout Europe, America and Australia. This shows that good music does not care about language.

TRUST kick in the interplanetary door to distant galaxies when they play progressive rock in true garage style. Here you will find Ozzy-esque vocals, stony riffs, cleverly dribbling drumming and tackling rhythm changes. Hot, rocking and complex at the same time.

UNDERGANG present some of the heaviest and most evil music you will hear on Pavilion Junior – or anywhere else on this planet – this summer. On the debut album Indhentet af døden (run down by death) Undergang show that they know their old-school death metal.

Audience requests are an exciting supplement
Throughout the month of January the audience submitted music requests for the Pavilion Junior stage. Roskilde Festival received lots of suggestions for acts that ought to play on the popular stage.

Booking agent Stefan Gejsing says:

”I'm impressed by the broadness in the music requests. It's an exciting supplement to my work, and it will definitely show in the Pavilion Junior programme this year.”

Roskilde Festival looks forward to presenting more acts from Nordic countries for the Pavilion Junior stage throughout this week that has just begun.

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 12:04:44

Mixed musical treats to Roskilde Festival

Chase & Status, Foals, Killing Joke and Kylesa are added to the poster.

Today's bunch of new bands offers something for every taste. With much varied names, today's announcement covers many genres.

CHASE & STATUS (UK) are about to become megastars in the arena where drum'n'bass, dubstep, pop and rock collide in spectacular public celebrations. Everyone who enjoyed a hot rave in the company of The Prodigy and/or Pendulum at Roskilde Festival 2010, should go to a massive drum'n'bass party with Chase & Status.

FOALS (UK) play danceable rock that you can easily move your feet to. However, unlike few other British bands, Foals are intent on musical experimentation, constantly shaking and challenging the templates of their rock songs. Look forward to skewed, tricky rhythms and African-inspired guitar playing from this advanced, British rock band.

KILLING JOKE (UK) has with industrial synthesizers, aggressive guitars and electronic techno rhythms inspired a dizzying number of bands. Both the metal and punk crowds have embraced this band. Absolute Dissent from 2010 is made by the original lineup from the late 70s and shows a manic top form on par with the early years.

KYLESA (US) is a Southern state band specialising in psychedelic metal with a poppy edge. The vocal alternation between Laura Pleasants and Philip Cope and the many accessible and almost indie-rocking features of the songs make Kylesa a band who, as a matter of course, invites all kinds of music lovers into the fold.

Next week: Pavilion Junior
Next week Roskilde Festival announces lots of exciting bands from all over Scandinavia for the stage for upcoming talent, Pavilion Junior, playing in the period 26 - 29 June.

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 11:45:30

”Just Like That”: Historic Afrobeat party at Roskilde Festival

Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti share a stage for the first time.

A flag day for the Afrobeat genre awaits at Roskilde Festival 2011. For the first time ever Fela Kuti’s two sons FEMI KUTI and SEUN KUTI are on the same stage. It is nothing less than a sensation – an event that will put a smile on the face of the great musician and political rebel in the Olympia of music legends. Named after a song by Fela, we call this double show “Just Like That”.

The two brothers take the stage together after having played separate shows. Roskilde Festival and the Kuti brothers’ base are now working on making a concert experience full of surprises that will match this central event in the history of the Afrobeat genre.

FEMI KUTI & POSITIVE FORCE played an emotional concert the day after the Roskilde accident in 2000. Femi started out in his father’s backing band in the 80s. Today he is playing with his fourteen-piece band. Straight from The Afrika Shrine, Lagos, he combines raw hard-edged rhythms, the complexities of Miles/Gillespie-inspired brass and seductive dancers, all in one awe-inspiring show.

SEUN ANIKULAPO KUTI & EGYPT 80 conquered Roskilde Festival’s Cosmopol stage in 2007 with a tremendous party. Seun is the youngest of the Kuti sons and plays with his father’s old legendary band. The red-hot mix of funk, sparkling horns, musical joy and political indignation continues. Yet, Kuti junior relates just as much to the present music scene as he does to his iconic family name.

An epoch-making Roskilde event
The global music scene has always been in focus throughout Roskilde Festival’s history. With this sensational meeting between the Afrobeat dynasty’s greatest living pioneers, the festival continues being an event that not only reflects the music scene but also sets up new musical meetings.

Major interest in Afrobeat
Fela Kuti enjoys great attention in the West. A musical about the genre-creator and freedom fighter – FELA! – played for 14 months on Broadway. After that it was London’s turn, and in April the play will be performed in Kuti’s homeland Nigeria. In New York, Copenhagen, Paris and London numerous young bands are inspired by this festive, hip-shaking funk. Roskilde Festival rides on the top of the Kuti wave and invites everyone with a preference for energetic, vigorous music to take part in this historic Afrobeat party.

Festival News Written 2011-04-12 10:59:20

Psychedelic sounds to Roskilde Festival

Spids Nøgenhat, Yemen Blues and Zun Zun Egui add new acidy colours to the music programme.

This week's music package has all colours of the rainbow. Roskilde Festival presents acid rock, fusion blues and post-everything rock.

SPIDS NØGENHAT (DK) has achieved an almost cult-like status among Danish music freaks. The rare live shows by Spids Nøgenhat are mind-expanding sessions that will appeal to all lovers of psychedelic rock and strange plants. Several of the band members have previously played at Roskilde Festival with Baby Woodrose and Dragontears.

YEMEN BLUES (ISR) blends the ancient sound of the (un)happy Arabia with brass, cross flute and percussion. Everything is brought together by Ravid Kahalani – an Israeli with a Yemeni background – in a fragrant potpourri full of blues and jazzy finesse. An exciting fusion project with numerous scents from both the Middle East, Africa and New York.

ZUN ZUN EGUI (UK) is principally considered a British band – but this is really a rainbow-coloured explosion of nationalities, genres and musical languages. African guitar, Japanese avant-garde and jazzy post-rock from Chicago clash in a dadaist carnival – a sound nightmare for everyone who demands clear-cut genre borders. Fans of Frank Zappa, Mike Patton and Talking Heads will nod appreciatively.

Roskilde Festival has a mixed music bag ready to be announced. Today's charming foursome offers something that fits most tastes.

DESTROYER (CAN) has since the mid-90s released some of the most delicate and enigmatic albums full of lyrical glam pop. On the latest album Kaputt, front man and mastermind Dan Bejar flirts with soft rock, synths and saxophone solos. He brings his big backing band to Roskilde Festival. Roskilde Festival is excited to finally present this shy and unique songwriter in Scandinavia.

LITTLE DRAGON (S) mixes synth pop, jazzy R&B and trip hop in its own charming mixture. The Swedish band has collaborated with capacities such as Damon Albarn and Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio. The Japanese singstress Yukimi Nagano was also on Roskilde's Orange Stage along with Gorillaz in 2010. A small Swedish band with a big wing span.

TAME IMPALA (AUS) has skillfully picked up the tricks from psychedelic bands such as Cream and The Beatles – but also more contemporary mushroom pickers such as The Flaming Lips. A mildly drugged vibe hangs over each note from the Australians who take the audience to a comfortable place off the map by means of jam sessions, dreamy vocal harmonies and evergreen melodies.

VETO (DK) has, in the course of three rainy electro rock albums, established itself on the Danish rock scene. Front man Troels Abrahamsen has never let the steadily growing success block his artistic vision. The inspiration come from British, alternative rock, but the four Danes add a more distinct electronic touch to the music that is constantly sprawling, ticking and hissing inside the dark soundscapes.

Festival News Written 2011-04-05 09:58:06

2.3 million euro ready for charitable donation

Tuesday night the members of Roskilde Festival Charity Society approved the accounts at the annual general meeting. Now a profit of DKK 17.5 million (approx. EUR 2.3 million) will be donated to charity.

It was a proud board that Tuesday night could present the second best financial result in the history of Roskilde Festival Charity Society.

DKK 17.5 million (approx. EUR 2.3 million) is the result from the sunny and sold-out Roskilde Festival in 2010.

Roskilde Festival Charity Society organises the annual Roskilde Festival with the purpose of supporting humanitarian and cultural initiatives. The board will now start donating the profit from 2010, which due to the festival's VAT exemption must be done before the execution of Roskilde Festival in 2011.

All credit to the volunteers
"Our 28,000 volunteers have made a completely indescribable effort to put together a great festival. It's because of them that Roskilde Festival exists and that we can now donate this much money to charity," says Steen Jørgensen, chairman of Roskilde Festival Charity Society.

Through the years Roskilde Festival Charity Society has generated approx. 20.1 million euro to charity.

About Roskilde Festival Charity Society
Roskilde Festival Charity Society is the association behind Roskilde Festival. Its purpose is to support initiatives benefitting young people and to support humanitarian and cultural work. The society's work is independent of party politics and has no geographical borders.

Roskilde Festival has a genuine Americana package ready for today. While today's acts come from both sides of the Atlantic, all three names have country, folk and rustic, all-American songwriting as a starting point.

BRIGHT EYES (US) has gone from being a breathlessness-struck teenager to a fully mature songwriter with air under his wings, political indignation and a great arsenal of musical effects. Front man Conor Oberst’s easily recognised voice enjoys the company of well-written songs that in an instant can go from flickering beautifully and quietly as a candle to bursting out in a sea of flames of emotional rock. Alternative folk rock in American wide-screen from an artist that many has proclaimed a new Bob Dylan.

CODY (DK) plays pop songs in a charming country and folk wrapping. Kaspar Kaae is Cody’s band leader, songwriter and artistic driving force. Single-handedly, he produces Americana-sounding pop hits with a perfect American accent. In concert a whole group of musical esquires join him on stage. This way, Cody’s lonely starting point is turned into a collective experience lifted by violins, lap steel guitar and banjo.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE (US) is no less than the son of American country rock legend Steve Earle – yet, he seems convincing in his insistence of marking his own territory. With a rough life behind him, Earle has lots of material to write songs from, loaded with the isolation and hard-earned experiences of country music. At the same time it is clear to hear that this is a new generation singing. As a member of the mp3 generation he can easily skip between different genres such as blues, folk, hillbilly and honky tonk. Earle junior follows inventively and respectfully in his father's footsteps.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-03-21 13:21:15

Roskilde Festival focuses on the homeless

On Thursday 24 March Roskilde Festival encourages its audience to take action against poverty. Disguised as beggars, the audience kickstarts the festival's Statement campaign against poverty and inequality.

The actions, called 'people of the street', take place in six different cities in Denmark, Norway, England and Germany. They mark the intensification of Roskilde Festival's humanitarian campaign Statement. The theme of Statement is poverty and inequality, and the focus in the coming weeks is especially on the homeless. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness and to start a public debate on poverty and inequality.

Goal: an official poverty line in Denmark
The long-term, ambitious goal of the campaign is to define an official poverty line in Denmark.

"Roskilde Festival has always been a festival with a position. We have always looked at our surroundings and supported the weak and vulnerable in society. With Statement we now focus on poverty and inequality. We believe that we need to address some of the issues going on in our own backyard. We are fully aware that Statement and our goal, not least, are a political appeal. It's all about the country we live in and how we prioritize and treat each other – but our starting point is really social indignation and a wish to get our audience and others to consider and address the challenges regarding poverty," says Roskilde Festival's spokeswoman Christina Bilde about the background of the campaign. She continues:

"When we set the bar high and have a goal of having an official poverty line introduced in Denmark, it's because we believe that there's a need for an indicator that you can base goals on and act actively from."

The 'people of the street' actions take place in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Oslo, London, Manchester and Berlin on Thursday 24 March at 16:30.

Charity fundraising for the homeless
Besides the actions, Roskilde Festival activates its audience with a film competition and a collection of money for Projekt Udenfor (project outside), a Danish organisation working with homeless people.

Projekt Udenfor works with homeless people out on the street. For instance, the organisation serves hot meals on the street and provides medical care 'on wheels' for the homeless and veterinary help for their four-legged friends. Roskilde Festival has chosen to raise money for the organisation because they are enthusiasts in their field, are not dictated by anything other than charity and believe that everybody has the right to a helping hand without wanting somthing in return.

"It's completely in line with Roskilde Festival's own values of community, tolerance and diversity, which also have some of the values ​​we want to bring into the debate about poverty," says Christina Bilde.

The charity fundraising for Projekt Udenfor takes place in week 12 and 13 on Roskilde Festival's website.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-03-05 17:22:19

Societies achieve record-high profits at Roskilde Festival

Organisations from all over Denmark made DKK 18.9 million (approx. EUR 2.5 million) in total from volunteer work at the sold-out Roskilde Festival 2010.

While the audience keep the atmosphere at the boiling point, volunteers from various organisations keep the wheels turning at Roskilde Festival.

31,000 people volunteered at last year’s Roskilde Festival. 22,000 of them were employed by organisations, e.g. athletic associations, student societies and non-profit societies to do trade and service work.

Now the financial result from their great effort is worked out.

Biggest profit in the history of Roskilde Festival
The service organisations in charge of the clean-up and access control have brought in DKK 5 million (approx. EUR 671,000).

The trade organisations that serve food and drinks in approximately 85 stalls have a total profit of DKK 13.9 million (approx. EUR 1.9 million).

This makes a total of DKK 18.9 million (approx. EUR 2.5 million) for the organisations' efforts at Roskilde Festival 2010.

In comparison, in 2009 the organisations made DKK 15.8 million (approx. EUR 2.1 million) and DKK 9.4 million (approx. EUR 1.3 million) in 2008. The profit in 2010 is the largest in the festival’s 40-year-old history.

Support for organisations
“The organisations and their volunteers make an invaluable effort in servicing the audience, and I’m very pleased that Roskilde Festival has generated such a solid financial profit for the organisations and that we, in this way, can help support the cultural life,” states Roskilde Festival managing director Henrik Rasmussen.

In 2010 Roskilde gathered around 130,000 festival guests and volunteers. It is the combination of amazing weather and a sold-out festival that has generated a great turnover in the stalls and secured a maximum payout to the service organisations whose settlement of accounts with Roskilde Festival Charity Society is dependent on the ticket sales.

22.1 million euro earned throughout the years
Throughout the years the participating organisations and associations have earned more than DKK 165 million (approx. EUR 22.1 million) on working at Roskilde Festival.

Roskilde Festival Charity Society, that arranges Roskilde Festival, announces its profit from the previous festival in connection with the society’s annual general meeting on 29 March 2011.

"Why don’t we do it on the stairs?” is the title of the winning project in the design competition BUILD WHAT HERE for designing a new installation and landmark for Roskilde Festival 2011. Behind the project are two architecture students from Sweden and Norway.

With an impressive interest from all over the world, the design competition BUILD WHAT HERE asking to design a physical space a landmark for Roskilde Festival 2011 has found its winner. The competition resulted in 67 very different, creative and inspiring proposals from architects, artists and students from Denmark to Columbia.

The jury has unanimously chosen the project "Why don’t we do it on the stairs?" by architecture students Victor Serrander (Stockholm) and Anders Grivi Norman (Oslo) who started the Berlin-based architecture collective Re-Make/Re-Model in 2010.

”The winning project demonstrates a great understanding of Roskilde Festival's audience and creates a magnificent platform for creativity, interaction, relaxation and party at the festival. The structure will certainly be a well-known and iconic meeting point at Roskilde Festival 2011 with its illuminated monumental and dynamic structure,” says Esben Danielsen, head of development at Roskilde Festival.

A strong focus on flexibility and user-interaction
The winning proposal consists of two large stair structures facing each other. The stairs offer views over the festival and the Orange Stage and are filled with ‘activity boxes’ – inviting artists and festival guests to engage in the Culture Zone. The structure is to be built of re-used plywood and scaffolding.

Victor Serrander and Anders Grivi Norman are both experienced when it comes to Roskilde Festival as they have attended the festival several times. And that is why the proposal has a strong focus on flexibility and user interaction:

“"Why don't we do it on the stairs?" aims at being a space that can be whatever people want it to be: a place that can be used for everything from movie screenings and debates to dancing and kissing. We can't wait for the summer!" says Anders Grivi Norman.

Roskilde as a mirror for urban planning
The Danish Architecture Center (DAC) has organised BUILD WHAT HERE in collaboration with Roskilde Festival and is thrilled to see so many, cross-disciplinary teams take part in the competition.

“In many ways, Roskilde Festival can be seen as a mirror and a test site for urban planning of the future. Notions of temporality, multi-functionality and cross-disciplinarity are all central in this regard. BUILD WHAT HERE has been a great opportunity to explore the concept of the temporary city with young architects and their collaborators from all over the world,” says Kent Martinussen, CEO of Danish Architecture Centre.

The winning project and other highlighted proposals will be presented in an exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre from 7 May 2011.

For more information about the winning proposal and to see other highlighted projects, download the Jury Report on www.dac.dk/buildwhathere

Congotronics vs Rockers, Jagwa Music and Shangaan Electro make everyone's behinds vibrate so that all the calories from the wintertime disappear.

Today's common denominator is Africa. The first act below tries in true Roskilde-style to break down the barrier between the hot Western acts and the roaring talent mass from the global music scene.

CONGOTRONICS vs ROCKERS (INT) revive the special congotronics sound from Konono N°1 and Kasai Allstars in new interpretations along with Deerhoof from the US, Juana Molina from Argentina, Wildbirds & Peacedrums from Sweden and Matt Mehlan from US act Skeletons. Together, this star-studded bunch rediscovers the electrified, joyous trance sound that has turned Congo into a music mecca for hipsters and music lovers.

JAGWA MUSIC (TAN) cultivates a genre called mchiriku, a percussion-based type of music that makes your blood boil with its steady, rhythmic attack. Due to a lack of funds, the musicians use old Casio keyboards and whatever materials they can get a hold of as well as traditional African drums.

SHANGAAN ELECTRO (ZA) gives the audience an opportunity to experience a brand-new genre from the first row. The speedy music style is already a hit on YouTube with over two million views. In the townships of Johannesburg people from 12 to 50 are shaking their booties to this revolutionary mix of up-tempo, synthetic marimba beats and pitched vocal samples - and they can keep going for hours as long as the tempo is fast enough. Now it is Roskilde Festival's turn when Nozinja, Tshetsha Boys and DJ Spoko deliver ultra-kinetic musical energy.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-03-05 17:17:23

M.I.A. to Roskilde Festival

A clear-cut pop party with the provocative style icon.

Few artists have such a tight grip on the zeitgeist as today's new addition to the Roskilde programme.

M.I.A. (UK) has, in the course of three albums and several mixtapes, shown us how to transpose today's internet-based world to fierce, genre-exceeding pop. Roskilde Festival is looking forward to preparing a stage for a global pop fest with one of today's most hip and controversial acts.

M.I.A.'s music is dirty like a city pavement and has both Western and Oriental blood running through its system. She skips between the continents in the same way as others manoeuvre the internet. Dancehall, Bollywood, Afro hip hop, Suicide. Everything is put on the catapult and fired off.

The latest release from the provocative style icon is the mixtape Vicki Leekx – and as always M.I.A. couples music and explosive political issues.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-02-24 09:45:37

Bring your one-for-the-road drink
In 2011, you can bring your beer from camp site to the inner festival site. You can bring up to a half-litre as long as it is in a container supported by the festival's refund system. And empty containers are welcome, regardless of shape and size.

We failed at making a clear, common understanding of our measure regarding beverages in 2010 when you could not bring your own drinks from the camp site to the festival site – and we were rightly criticized. So, we try again with a decision that is a ready response to the displeased reactions from last year. We hope for your support and understanding – even a clear and simple precaution can cause some rigidity.

Why has it been so difficult? Roskilde Festival's several thousand volunteers have to manage a few simple rules so things can go quickly and smoothly. At the same time it must match most people's needs so that you can bring your water as well as coffee, but so that it also respects environmental considerations regarding waste and sales regarding the fact that beverage sale at the inner festival site finances a large part of the party.

We hope for your understanding that we have to take these simple precautions, which also means that we can maintain a reasonable price on beverages. It also means that you can bring your beer with you at places where it is prohibited at most other festivals.

If you want things in more practical terms, then read below:

Beverages in the festival's refund system
The change means that you at Roskilde Festival 2011 can bring one beverage – water, wine, vodka or whatever you are drinking to warm up or cool down. There is green light for drinks in a container up to 0.5 litre. The container can be open or closed, that is up to you. We only require that the beverage container is part of our refund system, i.e. cans and plastic bottles with the Danish A, B and C refund label as well as the festival's own refund cups. This is to ensure that we minimize waste.

You can bring all empty containers, regardless of shape and size, as long as the container is not made of glass. Glass can provide great discomfort if it is smashed, so we try to avoid glass containers where possible.

Easy access to water
The possibility of filling water bottles from taps at the festival site prevents dehydration and makes sure that you can be cooled down and get enough fluid when the tropical temperatures wash over the festival site as they have done the past few years.

Festivalnytt Written 2011-02-22 22:43:13

MASTODON TO ROSKILDE FESTIVAL

Dååth and Parkway Drive are also added to the programme.
Today Roskilde Festival proudly presents a band whose career the festival has followed at close range. Two smaller, just as fresh acts are also added to the impressive offering of metal and pitch-black energy.

MASTODON (US) play their third concert at Roskilde Festival this summer. The mix of classic heavy metal, progressive rock and great technicality has made the band from the deep US south darlings with both metal fans, critics and music fans that are not normally into hard rock. When they played in 2005 and 2007, they were critically acclaimed and with a breakaway potential from the narrow metal circles. This year they come to Roskilde Festival as one of the strongest acts of the genre. And if you want to be assured about Mastodon’s continued supremacy on a live stage, Live At The Aragon – a good old-fashioned live recording from Chicago – is out soon.

DÅÅTH (US) has, in the course of four albums, investigated the borderland between death metal, thrash and whichever musical impressions that have caught their interest. Dååth’s two guitarists turn each concert into an eye-opener regarding virtuosity and dizzying solos, while drummer Kevin Talley is a star in metal circles for his take-no-prisoners drumming.

PARKWAY DRIVE (AUS) is becoming one of Australia's biggest successes in metal and hardcore. Do not let Parkway Drive’s pretty band name fool you. This is metalcore from the angriest and heaviest part of the genre spectrum. The young band’s first albums were produced by none other than Adam Dutkiewicz from Killswitch Engage. In the future the Australians may just well be in the same league as these metal giants.